By Barnabas Esiet

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Paul Angya, the acting director general of Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) on Tuesday issued a 24-hour ultimatum to dealers to destroy every fake tyre in their stock or face prosecution.

Angya who gave the ultimatum at a stakeholder’s forum in Lagos said the era of seizure and destruction of fake and substandard products was over as the Agency will henceforth prosecute offenders.

He made reference to a recent report by the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) stating that out of 8,986 accidents recorded in 2015, 722 were due to tyre bursts resulting in the death of 446 persons.

The SON DG threatend to charge with murder, any dealer of fake product caught by his agency.
”We are going to stamp out corruption among the tyre dealers as the task force we are going to set up will not sleep until we confirm that accidents in the country are not traced to substandard tyres again” he said.

Angya disclosed his agency has the legal backing to shut down, for three (3) months without going to court, any shop displaying fake tyres adding that offenders could also bag up to  10 years imprisonment without any option of fine.

“The agency will soon take the campaign of standard tyres to the motor packs across the country to sensitise Nigerians about the usage and maintenance of tyres,” he added.

The SON boss urged motorists not to patronise unqualified vulcanizers as their activities also contribute to road accidents.